Archive for the ‘Brussels Landmarks’ Category

• Overview of the Hotel: Situated on the Avenue Louise, the luxurious Conard Brussels is the hotel that is surrounded by the stylish shops, restaurants and bars. Guest at the hotel can enjoy and can have access to the Aspria Wellness Centre. The private health club there at the hotel provides about various different beauty treatments. Restaurant Café Wiltcher’s serves international meals and as well has entirely covered terrace that provides the views of the courtyard. The smoking area in the Loui Lounge _ Bar provides a range of cigars and whiskeys. The hotel is about 5-minute walk away from the Louise Metro Station that provides the direct access to the Brussels South Station in 3 stops. The Magritte Museum and Royal Palace are about 15-minute walk away from there. The hotel has total 269 rooms and it is the part of the chain of the Hilton Hotels,Conrad Hotels _ Resorts.
• Amenities at the Hotel: With reference to general amenities in the hotel it include facilities as restaurant, bar, 24-hour front desk, newspapers, terrace, non-smoking rooms, rooms/facilities for disabled guests, elevator, safe, baggage storage, all public and private spaces non-smoking and air conditioning. In services the hotel include as room service, meeting/banquet facilities, business center, babysitting/child services, laundry, dry cleaning, hair/beauty salon, breakfast in the room, ironing service, currency exchange, shoe shine, car rental, tour desk, fax/photocopying and ticket service.

• Hotel Rules: As for hotel rules in the common areas in the hotel same rules are applies whereas for the different rooms in the hotel the varying rules therefore are easily available and are provided. The check in time into the hotel is 15:00 hours and the checkout time is until 12:00 hours. Cancellation and prepayment policy there vary according to the room type. Pets are allowed there on a certain applicable charges. The hotel accepts cards like as American Express, Visa, Euro-Master Card, Carte Bleue, Diners Club and JCB.

Brussels lace is a sort of pillow lace that has roots around Brussels. There are many laces around Brussels that are too popular; however, the Brussels lace is strictly interpreted to bobbin lace in which the pattern is prepared first, then the ground. Brussels lace therefore should not be confused with Brussels point that is a sort of needle lace. Brussels lace is prepared in pieces, with the flowers and design different from the ground, unlike Mechlin lace or Valenciennes lace this help the long threads that form the design to be according to the curves of the pattern, whereas in bobbin laces prepared instantly, the threads run parallel to the entire length of the lace.

Brussels lace easily can be recognized through its réseau or background, the toilé or pattern, and the lack of a cordonnet which outlines the pattern. The réseau is hexagonal, with four threads plaited four times on two sides, and two threads twisted twice on the remaining four sides. The toilé can be of two types, the standard woven texture like a piece of fabric, or a more open version with more of the appearance of a netted réseau. This brings the impact of the shades in the design an effect that was further used in the later designs. In Brussels lace, in place of cordonnet, the pattern is bordered with open stitches that then move around from the réseau or background.

Brussels lace is far popular for its delicacy and beauty. At its reality, it was prepared with the finest spun lined thread that is spun in dark damp rooms so that the threads do not become too much brittle. There only one ray of light use to be allowed in the room and falling straight on to the thread. This the quality of this fine thread that prevents the mechanized production of the Brussels lace as well its production at other places as well. Brussels lace cost wise charge more than Mechlin lace, and is in much demand in England and France. The production of the Brussels lace started in the 15th century and for the first time in detail is explained in England in a list given to Princess Mary at New Years 1543.

On the basis of Production, Brussels lace is found in three types including Point d’Angleterre came as the smuggled Brussels lace into the England due to a 1662 English Parliament bill that banned the import all sort of laces into the United Kingdom. And the lace with this name too becomes popular at other parts of Europe as well. Point plat appliqué is the name given to Brussels lace where the design is made on machine net, in place of handmade réseau. Point Duchesse is the type of Brussels lace that does not have a réseau.

The Death of Marat is an eighteenth century (Year 1793) painting in the Neo-classical style by the Jacques- Louis David. The painting is being revered and is praised as an image from the French Revolution. This painting depicts the killing of radical journalist Jean-Paul Marat, killed on the 13th of July 1793 by Charlotte Corday. Corday was a French Revolutionary figure hailing from a mediocre aristocratic family. Corday, held Marat for the September Massacres and feared an all out civil war. He favored the assassination as terming it as an effort to save one lakh lives by killing the only one.

Jean-Paul Marat was a Swiss-born French physician, philosopher, political theorist and scientist and was referred as the well known radical journalist and politician from the French Revolution. It is said about him that Marat use to take shelter of cold bath to ease him from the violent itching as emerging from skin diseases that he suffered for a long period and are said to be caused as when he was forced to escape in Paris sewers to save him from his enemies. David was a close friend of Marat, as well as a strong supporter of Robespierre and the Jacobins. As he had a facial tumor as occurred due to fencing, David was excessively happy with his capacity to convince crowd for their speeches. He as an effort to memorize his friend, David painted this portrait of Marat.

Marat is quite praised one and is idealized and the painting there keeps no sign of skin problems. However in this painting he is not shown with the marks of his skin problems. David, however, collected the details from his visit to Marat’s residence well before the assassination as including, the green rug, the papers, and the pen. David, there promised his friends in the National Convention that would inspect and show their murdered friend invocatively. The Death of Marat is there referred and designed as a personal hero. Yet the name Charlotte Corday can be seen there on the paper as kept in Marat’s left hand, the assassin herself is not visible.

While a close look of this painting shows Marat at his last breath when Corday and many others were yet close to them. And there David had tried to preserve more than the horror of martyrdom. In this manner, the painting, entirely from its beginning is a systematic construction of the victim and according to many critiques is termed as the “awful beautiful lie”. Many a times, the painting Death of Marat is been compared to the Michelangelo’s Pieta.

The Bavarian National Museum is among one of the most important cultural history museums in entire Europe. The building is stood tall in the style of historism by Gabriel von Seidl 1894-1900 and is the most original and significant museum building of that time and era. The building is situated at the Prinzregentenstrasse, which is among one of the city’s four royal avenues. The museum at the time was constructed at the place of an older building; presently, it houses the State Museum of Ethnology. The museum was established by the king Maximilian II of Bavaria in 1855. It keeps an entire big house with collection of European artifacts from the late antiquity till the early 20th century. From the start, the entire collection is equally divided into two main groups as the art historical collection and the folklore collection.

While at the back side of the museum, there is located the house of the Bavarian State Archaeological Collection (Archäologische Staatssammlung) as from the very first settlement as occurred during the Paleolithic Ages through the Celtic civilization and the Roman period till the early Middle Ages. The art historical collection there shows the artworks in a tour as kept in about forty rooms as ranging from the hall for late antiquity and Romanesque art through the rooms for Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo art to the exhibits of Classicism and Art Nouveau.

Among the exhibits in the museum the prominent ones include the things like one as ivory reliefs, goldsmith works, textiles, glass painting, tapestries and shrines. There on show remain the sculptures as developed by the prominent sculptors like Erasmus Grasser, Tilman Riemenschneider, Hans Multscher, Hans Leinberger, Adam Krafft, Giovanni Bologna, Hubert Gerhard, Adriaen de Vries, Johann Baptist Straub, Ferdinand Tietz, Ignaz Günther, Matthias Steinl, and Ludwig Schwanthaler. The museum is too poplar for its collections of courtly culture, musical instruments, furnitures, oil paintings, sketches, clocks, stoneware, majolica, miniatures, porcelain and faience. It is about the world’s best collection of the Nymphenburg porcelain figures of Franz Anton Bustelli (1723-63). At the western direction of the museum is located The Bollert Collection having the late medieval sculptures and paintings. The Folklore collection there keeps the conventional Bavarian furnitures, rural pottery, crockery and religious folklore involving the extraordinary collection of Neapolitan, Sicilian, Tyrolian and Bavarian Wood Carvings with street scenes and Nativity Scenes.

• Overview of the Hotel: This Le Meridien Bruxelles hotel is situated across the Brussels Central Train Station, about a 5-minute walk away from Grand Place. Most of the big rooms of the hotel provide an exclusive city views. The Meridien Brussels has about a 24-hour reception and a massage service. From there you can reach upto the Magritte Museum about in about 7 minutes. The European Commission is about only 4 stands away from there. The hotel has about 224 rooms and it is the chain of the Le Meridien Hotels _ Resorts.

• Amenities at the Hotel: As far as for the general amenities in the hotel the prominent ones are as restaurant, bar, 24-hour front desk, newspapers, non-smoking rooms, rooms/facilities for disabled guests, elevator, express check-in/check-out, safe, soundproofed rooms, heating, baggage storage, stores in hotel, gay friendly and allergy-free room. With respect to activities in the hotel it includes as the fitness center, casino, massage and hiking. in services it includes the things as the room service, meeting/banquet facilities, business center, babysitting/child services, laundry, dry cleaning, breakfast in the room, ironing service, honeymoon suite, currency exchange, souvenirs/gift shop, car rental, fax/photocopying and ticket ser.

• Hotel Rules: With respect to hotel rules for the Le Meridien Bruxelles despite being a general policy. The hotel rules change from hotel rooms to hotel rooms. The Check in time into hotel is 15:00 to 00:00 hours. And the check out time is 07:00 - 12:00 hours. Cancellation and prepayment policies there vary accordingly from room type to room type. The hotel accepts cards like American Express, Visa, Euro/Mastercard, Carte Bleue, Diners Club and JCB.

The Frenchification of Brussels is the change of Brussels as happened a century back from a Dutch dominant city into one that is amply bilingual or rather multilingual. Into the activities of new system, French was placed there as an alternative language with reference to being as a majority language and lingua franca. The most influencing aspect of this change was a shift from Dutch to French within the local Flemish residents as well as through the medium of immigration of French-speakers and international immigration and other related aspect and methodology.

The transition started slowly in the 18th century, but the activities for the transition occurred as the results of Belgian Revolution, where Brussels was the capital of the new independent Belgium. Irrespective of Dutch speaking mass in the prominence, demographically, French was constituted as the only official language and the language of the courts, culture, the medial and education. And this led to the major shift from Dutch to French as reaching by the late 19th century. Initially, there was a rise in the number of people who were bilingual and who learnt French at the cost of Dutch speaking masses. And with the passage of time, the number of monolingual francophones grew in the tremendous number and considerably. At the Half mark of the 20th century, the number of monolingual French-speakers crossed over even the number of bilingual French/ Dutch speakers.

By the 1960s the Belgian language barriers were made rigid and the limited the official bilingualism somehow to the 19 municipalities of Brussels. As the French speakers became prosperous, by the time Dutch too regained their lost prestige and reputation and the Frenchification of Dutch speakers thus was restricted and prohibited. On the other side around the second half of the 20th century, Brussels became an impressive and effective international city and its internationalization brought an admixture of foreign immigrants, who, use to work in French or any other foreign languages instead of Dutch. Thus as Brussels expanded, there a good number of Dutch speaking municipalities in the near by areas at Dutch speaking municipalities at surrounding Flanders became rather French speaking.

As it is evident that Brussels became a center of immigrants from Flanders where economic strife and hunger was too common and this led to the feeling of the superiority of the Native Flemish Brussels residents as they developed over there other Flemish immigrants from the poor countryside who entrusted the decision to speak the rather “superior” French language. This led to the development of an education system that was bilingual in its effect and the Dutch was even not passed down by many to their children. French there was used to be as main language as spoken at home by many Flemings. And this way, it occurred to be an apparent mode of education and learning.

The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium located in Brussels is one of the popular museums in Belgium. In Brussels, the museum is located at the downtown area on the Coudenberg region. However, Royal Museum is not as a whole in totality and there about four other museums too are associated with it. The Museum of Ancient Art and the Museum of Modern Art, Brussels are located in the main building. The another two museums, the Constantin Meunier Museum and the Antoine Wiertz Museum is dedicated to specific Belgian artists and too are rather smaller in size and are located a few kilometers away from the city center.

The Royal Museum has the collection of about 20,000 drawings, sculptures, and paintings those have life span of as old as from the early 15th century to the present age and time. The museum has vast collection of Flemish painting, including the work of art by the world renowned painters like Bruegel and Rogier van der Weyden, Robert Campin, Anthony van Dyck, and Jacob Jordaens. The museum also has a very attractive and much praised “Rubens Room” that has about 20 paintings by the artist. The Museum also has the much famous painting like the The Death of Marat by Jacques-Louis David. The painting Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, long-attributed to Brueghel, is also located at this museum. Here too paintings are on the forms and the subject of W. H. Auden’s poem Musée des Beaux Arts as named after the museum. The exhibitions at museum too keeps on changing as in February 2007, the museum showcased the exhibitions of Belgian artist Leon Spilliaert and showcase of the Christmas food in Flemish painting.

As far as the structure that houses the Museum of Ancient Art was constructed as the Palais des Beaux and was designed by the Belgian Architect Alphonse Balat and further funded by King Leopold II. Balat was the king’s principle architect, and this museum was one of the primary objectives to the contribution in creation of Belgium. The building was entirely made in 1887, and is a brilliant example of the Beaux-Arts architecture that uses the themed statuary to relate to the identity and meaning of the building. The extensive program of architecture in museum is architectural sculpture including four primary elements as Music, Architecture, Sculpture and Painting. The museum exhibits the works of Égide Mélot, Georges Geefs, Louis Samain, and Guillaume de Groot, respectively.

Some other popular works of Art in the museum are the three rondels of Rubens, van Ruysbroek, and Jean de Bologne, who shows painting, architecture, and sculpture, are the work of Antoine-Joseph Van Rasbourgh, Antoine-Félix Bouré and Jean Cuypers. However, one can relate him to the museum only after visiting it.

The Musical Instrument Museum in the ‘Old England’ building is a music museum in central Brussels and is the part of the Royal Museums for Art and History and is world famous for its collection of around 1,5000 instruments. Initially, it was placed close to the Brussels Royal Music Conservatory as with aim to showcase the earlier music instruments for visiting students. The, MIM collection was developed in 1877 with a collection of a about Indian instruments provided to King Leopold II of Belgium by Rajah Sourindro Mohun Tagore in 1876 and the collection of the celebrated Belgian musicologist François-Joseph Fétis, as from the procurement by the Belgian government in 1872 and kept on deposit in the Conservatory, where Fétis was the first director.

The first curator of the museum Victor-Charles Mahillon, expanded the museum extensively as by the period of his death in 1924, the MIM had the collection of around 3,177 original and related musical instruments. He was known for its smart judgments in obtaining these large augmentations by becoming friendly with generous donors and in friendly relations with Belgian diplomats designated at the foreign posts, that brought those instruments back even beyond Europe. After him, Mahillon’s successor at the Conservatory, François-Auguste Gevaert, organized several successful concerts of professors and students playing early instruments in the 1880s.

After the First World War, donors and philanthropists there became rarer, and there between the period of between 1924 and 1968 only a thousand instruments were added to the museum. The exhibits in the museum shows up the Belgian musical history, European musical traditions, and even some non-European instruments. The mechanical instruments there are shown in the basement of the museums, traditional instruments on the ground floor, the development of the modern orchestral instruments on the first floor, and keyboard and stringed instruments on the second floor. Visitors even in the museum are provided with infrared headphones so they can listen to about almost 200 musical extracts of the instruments on show.

Some of the most famous collection in the museum is work of the famous Rottenburgh a Alto recorder, instruments as discovered by Adolphe Sax, a unique set of giant Chinese stone chimes, and the only existing copy of the luthéal, an instrument used by Ravel. The current location of the museum as if of 2000 is in the former Old England department store, constructed in 899 by Paul Saintenoy out of girded steel and glass in the art nouveau style as well as an eighteenth century neo-classic building designed by Barnabé Guimard. Operating hours for museums are between 9:30 AM to 4:45 PM Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and between 10:00 AM and 4:45 PM on Saturday and Sunday.

Overview of the Hotel: This hotel with capacity of around 326 rooms provides a very big and massive indoor parking and a piano bar with a massive TV for sport events and activities. Manneken Pis is hardly 2 minutes walk away from here. All rooms in the Bedford Hotel _ Congress Centre have satellite TV and a marble bathroom with a bath. There is also available free Wi-Fi in the business centre and lobby area, where you can even get 2 internet computers. After having workout in fitness center more you can start American breakfast buffet in the Thomas cook restaurant in the hotel. Grand Place and the Anneessens metro station is a 5-minutes walk away The Brussels Midi Station with its Eurostar and Thalys connections is a 15-minute walk away.

Amenities in Hotel: One can avail facilities like Restaurant, Bar 24 hour front desk, newspapers, non smoking rooms, elevator, safety deposit box, heating and luggage storage. Among the activities in the hotel it has an ultra modern Fitness center. The services in the hotel includes room service, meeting and banquet facilities, business centre, laundry, dry cleaning, breakfast in the room, ironing service, currency exchange, shoe shine, car hire, fax and photocopying. For internet there is available WiFi that is a business centre and entirely is free of charge.

Hotel Rules: There many general hotel policies are available for and are provided in the hotel Bedford Hotel and Congress Center. However hotel policies and rules even can change from room to room. Check in time into the hotel is 14:00 hours and one can even checkout from hotel at 11:00 hrs. The policies in the hotel for cancellation and prepayment vary upon on room type. All children living under 6 years there can stay for free even using the same bed. Children below two years can stay there for free of charge for cots. In a room maximum baby cots can be kept. Pets are not allowed in the hotel. While booking more that 5 rooms there different policies are applicable with additional supplement. The hotel still accepts the credit cards like American Express, Visa, Euro/Mastercard. Here hotel keeps all the best rights to pre-authorize credit cards before arrival.

It is very apt and seems this decision is being taken after too much of consideration to create miniature world “MiniEurope” in Brussels as city is the capital of European Union, itself. The miniatures, at the MiniEurope showcases the renowned and popular buildings in Europe per guidance and appropriate locations, therefore, showcases the inheritance of Europe and its manifoldness in multiple and varied way.

Mini-Europe is situated close to the Atomium, a landmark of Brussels that was constructed for the World Exhibition 50 years ago. Though area, where MiniEurope is constructed is not too extensive, its first appearance, but indeed has enough space so that many monuments of international relevance has been kept and constructed there in scale of 1:25.

The first building while entering into the park you will face is based upon the theme of MiniEurope is the Berlaymont-building, where the European Commission has its headquarters. In Brussels, the building is actually is situated at the Schumansquare in Brussels, that is named after the Robert Schuman, who is considered as “father of the European Union”.

On the opposite of the modern Berlaymont-building, there is Vikings settlement from the ancient European culture, and the country of Denmark. The fortress of Vikings is consisted of about 31 longhouses, thus creating a rough circle that is surrounded with the moats and walls. Apart from this, Denmark section of MiniEurope also showcases the houses from Nyhavn, and the old stockmarket. Next to Denmark is located, Sweden, that also shows the City Hall, where on 10th of December, the celebrations and cult as related to Noble Prize are depicted.

The next location in the park is the last Nordic country, Finland that as the monument to show and display is The Castle of Olavinlinna that actually is located at the East of Finland and once was employed as the defensive fortress against Russia. Another monument close to there is Monument of Freedom, from Riga, the capital of Latvia that was constructed in 1935, during the first period of independency. The country of Lithuania is represented by its university, which was founded in 1579 in the Old Town, near the Palace of the Bishops.

The neighboring countries of Belgium, the Netherlands, has around 15 buildings there to showcase the things as most of the tourists come to the park from the Netherlands rather than Estonia or Austria. The Townhall of Maastricht is shown there as an important center and the oldest city of Netherlands, but because in 1991, there a treaty was signed between as an important step for the formation of European Union. Next attraction from Netherlands is windmills that are too integral and inherent too the Culture of Netherlands. Over all in MiniEurope there are about monuments from 80 countries has been shown. The “Spirit of Europe” showcases an interactive and interesting overview of the European Union in the form of multimedia games. The park is constructed over an area of about 24,000 meter square area.